THE NAMING NUISANCE

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 39

THE NAMING NUISANCE

Sir George Clifford has earned the 'thanks of all sporting writers and the racing world generally by .taking a firm grip of the nomenclature business and inducing tho conference to grant him power to compel owners into reasonableness. The following announcements are made :—": — " From this date the names contained in the index to the New Zealand Stud Book as authorised by the Racing Conference cannot be bestowed upon any race•horse running in New Zealand. of horses not entered in the Stud Book will bo protected from duplicate U33 during the racing career of such horses and for a reasonable time afterwards. Names of prominent or celebrated racohorres in England or Australia, especially such as appear frequently in pedigrees, will not be allowed. Names of any, objectionable personal significance will not bo allowed. Owners are strongly advised to register each horse's name before starting it, in order to make certain of its eligibilitj 7 -. The executive, under resolution of the conference, is now directed to impo&e a fine of £2 for every occasion on which a horse is started under a name not permissible by tho Rules of Racing, and a fine of £5 if any name is knowingly used after formal objection has been notified to the owner or trainer. These regulations apply to all horses, " including hacks, hunters, and ponies, competing at any meeting held under the Rules of Racing." In this proclamation \re,haye two kinds^ ol prohibition, the absolute and, the conditional — the absolute relating to horses entered in our New, Zealand Stud Book— i.e-., those that are thoroughbred sud raised in this colony ; and the conditional bar applying to horses that for want of a thoroughbred pedigree cannot be' entered in the Stud Book. Liberator is a, type of the horses that are protected by this second prohibition. The qualification of the restriction in their case is that the name is protected while the horse is racing; and for a reasonable time afterwards. Personally 1 should have preferred to see tho absolute prohibition applied all round, but half a loaf is better than no bread, and, again, many of the imperfect-pedigreed racers are geldings and naturally drop out of sight when they are done racing. Some day, perhaps, the' conference will go a step farther and lay it down as the law that no horse shall start unless it has been duly entered in the Stud Book" and registered and known by a number, and T am prepared to argue that every horse ought tote thoroughly identified by the registration either of natural^or artificial markings. When these things are clone there will be nc more ringing-iiv and oui pedigrees will be absolutely unimpeachable. Prepant arrangements leave a loophole for a fraud. It is an old tale that one stallion whose name figures in our Stud Book was not the horse he was represented to be. Tha story goes that the original bearer of tho name died at sea, and that to escape loss tha name was transferred on the strict Q.T. to another horee that happened to be on board, this personating horse being ever afterwards known by his new name. I am not prepared to say that that yarn is true, but such a swindle is possible, and I should like to sq! it made impossible.